Stop Smoking

Saturday, November 21, 2009

The benefits of quitting smoking are numerous. As soon as a smoker agrees that smoking has harmful effects, then it is time for him to make a U-turn or quit smoking and hopes that the damage done to his health are not irreversible or beyond repair.

The benefits of quitting smoking for a smoker are not only on bodily health but also on his finances and general well-being.His friends, family members, close associates, people who stay around him who suffer the harmful effect of second hand smoking etc also benefit.

As a matter of fact, about thirty minutes after quitting smoking, a smoker’s blood pressure and pulse will return to normal.

A day after quitting smoking, carbon monoxide will be eliminated from the body and the lung will start to clear out mucous and other smoking waste.

Two days after quitting smoking, the body will be completely rid of nicotine and the ability for the person to taste and smell will be enhanced.

Another benefit of quitting smoking is that three days after stopping to smoke, the bronchial tubes will begin to relax making breathing to become easier and energy levels will also increase.

Between two to twelve weeks of stopping to smoke, blood circulation will be greatly enhanced.

Between three to nine months of quitting smoking, the lungs functions will be increased by 10% thereby reducing the problem of cough and panting.

The risk of heart attack will reduce to about half that of a smoker at about five years of stopping to smoke.

When it is ten years of quitting smoking, the risk of heart attack from smoking is reduced to zero and the risk of lung cancer is reduced to about half that of a smoker.

Other Benefits of Quitting Smoking

From a financial point of view, giving up smoking is likely to save money used in buying cigarettes or tobacco thereby increasing the person’s ability to purchase more of other beneficial commodities.

From the point of view of appearance, the person looks more presentable.This is because smoking had starved the skin of oxygen, making it look dry and grey.The tar in the tobacco had stained his teeth and fingers and wrinkles had formed around his eyes and mouth.But after quitting smoking, the healing process will set in and all these anomalies will begin to wear off.

Quitting smoking can increase a person’s fertility if this was decreased by smoking.This is because smoking has the ability to damage the blood vessels in the penis thereby rendering the person impotent.Smoking affects the sperm quality and density resulting to low sperm and sperm abnormalities.Women who smoke take a longer time to conceive and when they do, they are more likely to have miscarriages.

Women who quit smoking will have the chance to have normal birth.This is because babies born to mothers who smoked in pregnancy are more likely to be premature, stillborn or die shortly after birth.

Quitting smoking will give a person the benefit of having healthy children.This is because children whose parents smoke are more likely to get pneumonia and bronchitis in their first year of life, to suffer from more frequent and more severe asthma attacks and to become regular smokers themselves.

These benefits of quitting smoking are just a few among many not yet mentioned.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

The harmful effects of smoking cigarettes and tobacco are very numerous and very dangerous, often leading to negative consequences. The harmful effects of smoking are seen by some addicted smokers as something which the medical world invented to dissuade them from their wonderful past-time. A major reason why they find it difficult to believe that smoking has harmful effects is because some of these harmful effects of smoking do not manifest themselves immediately after smoking a stick of cigarettes but after a very long period of time. And when these smoking effects begin to manifest themselves, these addicted smokers may not readily attribute these effects to their long smoking habit. The following are some of the harmful effects of smoking cigarettes and tobacco:

Each year, thousands of people die from smoking related diseases such as cancer of the lungs, cancer of the larynx, cancer of the oral cavity and cancer of the esophagus. The harmful effects of smoking cigarettes and tobacco are also a contributory factor for the development of cancers of the kidney, bladder and pancreas. Cigarette smoking is also the major cause of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) which is also known as Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (COLD) and the cause of death among those who suffer it.

Another harmful effect of smoking cigarettes and tobacco is that when a person smokes, nicotine and carbon monoxide mixes and temporarily increase his heart-beat rate and blood pressure, straining his heart and blood vessels which may lead to cardiac arrest (heart attack) and stroke.

Some smokers may have their limbs amputated because the mixture of nicotine and carbon monoxide in each cigarette they inhale may slow blood flow, cutting off oxygen to their feet and hands.

If you take a look at the lung of a smoker, it is coated with tar like soot in a chimney and causes cancer.

Carbon monoxide deprives a smoker’s brain, muscles and body tissue of oxygen thereby forcing the heart to triple its effort or to work harder. With time, the air passage swells up and prevents adequate air from entering the lungs.

The diseases caused by smoking bring about a slow and painful death. For instance, emphysema is an illness that slowly rots your lung resulting to frequent attack of bronchitis and having lung and heart failure as the end result.

Tobacco smoke contains tar, and those who smoke are ten times more likely to suffer and die from lung cancer than those who do not smoke.